'\"macro stdmacro
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.TH PMPOST 1 "PCP" "Performance Co-Pilot"
.SH NAME
\f3pmpost\f1 \- append messages to the Performance Co-Pilot notice board
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B $PCP_BINADM_DIR/pmpost
[\f3\-D\f1 \f2debug\f1]
.I message
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B pmpost
will append the text
.I message
to the end of the
Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) notice board file (\c
.BR $PCP_LOG_DIR/NOTICES )
in an atomic manner that guards against corruption of
the notice board file
by concurrent invocations of
.BR pmpost .
.PP
The PCP notice board is intended to be a persistent store
and clearing house for important messages relating to the
operation of the PCP and the notification of performance
alerts from
.BR pmie (1)
when other notification options are either unavailable or
unsuitable.
.PP
Before being written, messages are prefixed by the current
time, and when the current day is different to the last
time the notice board file was written,
.B pmpost
will prepend the message with the full date.
.PP
If the notice board file does not exist,
.B pmpost
will create it.
.B pmpost
would usually run from long-running PCP daemons executing
under the (typically unprivileged)
.B $PCP_USER
and
.B $PCP_GROUP
accounts.
The file should be owned and writable by the
.B $PCP_USER
user, and readable by others.
.SH FILES
.TP 5
.I $PCP_LOG_DIR/NOTICES
the PCP notice board file
.SH "PCP ENVIRONMENT"
The file
.B /etc/pcp.conf
contains the local values for PCP_ variables.
.SH UNIX SEE ALSO
.BR logger (1).
.SH WINDOWS SEE ALSO
.BR pcp-eventlog (1).
.SH DEBUGGING OPTIONS
The
.B \-D
or
.B \-\-debug
option enables the output of additional diagnostics on
.I stderr
to help triage problems, although the information is sometimes cryptic and
primarily intended to provide guidance for developers rather end-users.
.I debug
is a comma separated list of debugging options; use
.BR pmdbg (1)
with the
.B \-l
option to obtain
a list of the available debugging options and their meaning.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR pmie (1),
.BR pcp.conf (5)
and
.BR pcp.env (5).
